Glasner: I'm Really Angry - Sunday-Tuesday-Thursday, No One Can Stand This Schedule
Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner attended the pre-match press conference ahead of the game against Brentford, expressing strong dissatisfaction with the club’s December schedule.
On "Glasner-style Football" Displayed Against Liverpool Midweek
I simply can’t play that kind of football. My skills aren’t good enough! I can’t pass the balls Daichi Kamada plays, nor can I combine like the front three. I just can’t.
Of course, that’s exactly the style we want to play. But you can’t always do it because there’s an opponent on the pitch. However, because we won the ball back in their half… then lost it again, we organized a brilliant defensive sequence, won the ball back and kept pressing, without dropping too deep, but maintaining possession all the time.
Daichi Kamada always finds opportunities to pass to our attacking players, and they have a great understanding. To be honest, what I like most is this creativity, because we’re talking about freedom in this area. Ismaila played a heel pass in one touch.
Eddie kept running. He didn’t even touch the ball, but his movement created space for Ismaila. Then Jeremy made the right decision, and that final ball… yes, it was an absolutely fantastic goal. But we missed a few other chances.
We said that’s what I admired most about this game. Today we also showed this to the players, which is also preparation for the game against Brentford.
We’ve been discussing our style of play. We can’t change our style in just two days. We don’t want to change our way of playing either. But we also have to respect Brentford’s style; maybe they won’t leave us those spaces.
Then we have to use other areas. The first goal was a bit similar. We attacked more from the flanks. But we had many players in the box with good movement, which is exactly what we’ve been working towards.
No matter what strategy the opponent adopts, we know what to do. We know where to find spaces, and of course, we will make full use of them.
On Daichi Kamada
Yes, that’s how I know him. He’s a great guy. He’s a bit quiet and not the most talkative in the dressing room. But he’s very professional and always available.
Like many other players, he initially struggled to adapt to the physical intensity of the Premier League. I talked to the chairman, who has worked in the Premier League for more than ten years and is much more experienced than me. He said we usually say: “It takes a year to adapt to the Premier League”, but now we expect him to adapt in a week or two!
We have to be patient and always support the players.
That’s how we treat our players. As long as they give their all in every training session and every day, we will fully support them. In the end, everything depends on themselves.
But for us, we have always known and believed that Daichi has the ability to become a dominant player in the Premier League, and he has proven that.
Jeremy Pino and His Attacking Role
I think without the ball, they have almost no freedom, really none at all! At that time, everything depends on tactical coordination, and everyone has to trust each other.
But with the ball, yes, we want more freedom. As a Premier League player and an international, just like all our attacking players, or many players from any club, we have to trust them to make the right decisions on the pitch. We just want to create spaces and areas for them to show their abilities.
Speaking of Jeremy, if we always put him on the last line facing center-backs, he will lose his advantage because his physicality isn’t the strongest.
But with his intelligence and movement between the lines… besides, Liverpool was like our mirror image. When he stays in the same position all the time, he’s easy to mark. So we say:
“Okay, you can play freely. You don’t have to stay in this position all the time. But don’t play like a center-back or full-back. So in these areas, you have room to express yourself.
In the middle, you can attack from one side or pull wide. If the opponent blocks the middle, pull wide to create numerical superiority on the flanks. If there’s space, like in the second goal, cut inside more.”
That’s the freedom we give them. Of course, we don’t want him to drop behind the center-backs because we need these players in areas where they can score goals.
I think we can also see that he sometimes struggles with the physicality of the Premier League. But it’s the same as Daichi’s situation. We support him because when you see how hard he worked against Liverpool, how often he pressed without the ball, how often he tracked back and did his job brilliantly, we support him. So I think in the end, he was rewarded with an assist and a goal.
On the Schedule Issue
I can’t believe it. This is irresponsible to the players, and we are responsible for them to ensure their health.
I was really angry when I heard the news yesterday. I can’t believe they would even consider this. I’m really angry, but actually, I discussed this issue three months ago when I looked at the schedule in the summer.
Now someone is dealing with this matter, and I hope they can communicate with each other. We have Europa Conference League, cup games and Premier League matches to play.
It would be great if UEFA, the Premier League and the FA could communicate with each other. We need to find a solution. Playing games on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday is irresponsible.
